


Beautiful Stranger

by Not_You



Category: Wonder Woman (Comics)
Genre: Amazons - Freeform, Carrying, Culture Shock, Diana has no idea why you're whistling, Diana is kind of a gearhead, F/M, Golden Age (Comics), Hurt/Comfort, Identity Issues, Islands, My First Work in This Fandom, One True Pairing, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Peril, Pre-Crisis, Queer Het, Reading Aloud, Rescue, Secret Identity, Short Chapters, Steve is such a damsel in distress, Strength Kink, Underwear, Work In Progress, World War II, all-girl island, i hope i'm not the only one who loves the golden age, lesbian society, military errors are canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-06
Updated: 2017-08-23
Packaged: 2018-01-18 09:14:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 13,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1422706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Not_You/pseuds/Not_You
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How Steve Met Diana.  And then probably some smut, because there just isn't any for these two.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Crash Landing

Steve Trevor isn’t a praying man. He knows his mother would prefer it if he were, but as far as he can tell, no loving god would let people make the world as hellish as they do. Doesn’t mean there is no God. Doesn’t even mean He doesn’t care, but it sure seems like He can’t do much to intervene, so there’s no point pestering. Still, there are few other options with his engines are on fire and the plane already way too low to parachute from and falling fast. _Lord,_ Steve thinks, watching the world spin and feeling the hot blood gush from his side, _it sure would be nice if I could survive this. I guess if I can’t, thank You for my family and the good health up until now._ His life doesn’t flash before his eyes, but the sun on the sea blinds him just before he slams into that blue-green water. 

He blacks out from the pain, and comes back to himself with his hands already scrambling at the harness. It finally gives and he drags himself out of the cockpit. Everything hurts. His head, his joints, the wound in his side that’ll call sharks as sure as a whorehouse calls sailors… This thought is one of the few coherent ones he has right now, and he drags himself through the water with what will have to be called his good arm even though it feels pretty bad, and spasmodic kicks. He’s pretty sure at least one of his ankles is broken, but that doesn’t matter. He saw land out of the corner of his eye as he fell, and his head for direction is what makes him a good pilot. The odds of him actually making it are probably only about fifty to one, but Steve has had worse. He hauls himself through the water in what he hopes is the right direction for as long as he can before the darkness closes in again. 

Steve isn’t actually expecting to wake up at all, and waking up in an actual bed is beyond weird. He can’t see and that sends him into a panic, but he can raise his less injured arm to touch his face, and finds that he has some kind of eye mask on. He tries to sit up, and a pair of hands push him down again. They’re soft and strong, obviously a woman’s hands, but a fairly large pair. “No,” she says, her voice low and sweet, with a strange accent that he can’t place. She smells like… almost like church incense, but different. It’s exotic and homey at the same time and he finds himself slightly soothed by it. 

“Where am I?” He croaks, and one of the hands moves to hold his head up, the other bringing a cup to his lips. It feels like pottery, and the water in it has no off tastes or scents. He doesn’t resist because he’s in no position to, and it would make no sense to poison him now, after going to the trouble of bandaging and blindfolding him. The water is better than good, it’s incredible, cold and pure like the spring in the woods behind his grandparent’s house. She’s a good nurse, whoever she is, because she manages to keep pace with his guzzling without drowning him, and doesn’t answer his question until he’s done with the cup. 

“You are on Themyscira, a secret island. You are blindfolded for everyone’s safety, as well as to shield your eyes from our healing rays.” 

“…Healing rays?” 

“Do they not have them in your country?” 

“Not that I know of, anyway.” 

“Well. Their light is very bright, and with the amount you need it would blind you as it healed the rest of your body. You have already had one treatment, and I hope you feel better.” 

“Lady, I’m surprised to be alive, and if you can actually get me back into the war…” 

“We know nothing of your world’s wars, but we shall heal you and somehow return you home.” 

As an intelligence officer, it’s pretty hard for Steve not to be suspicious, but he’s still too weak to do anything but go along to get along. So weak, in fact, that he falls asleep again halfway through the woman checking his bandages.


	2. The Weaker Sex

_For the rest of her life Diana will remember that day on the beach with perfect clarity. Early in her long, golden Amazon prime, her whole body thrumming with health and vitality and the warmth of the sun. She is lying on the shimmering nearly-white sand with Vesta, resting after swimming and wrestling, and Diana is teasing Vesta about Fauna, saying her shy friend should dance for the other girl to catch her attention._

_“Shut up!” Vesta says, shoving Diana lightly._

_Diana just laughs. “And you can toss that golden hair of yours around, too!” Blonde hair is very rare on Themyscira, and Vesta has always been a little vain of hers._

_“Diana, you’re terrible!” She squawks, and Diana hops up and kicks a little sand at her, careful not to get any in Vesta’s eyes._

_“As if you wouldn’t!” Diana calls, and Vesta chases her up and down the beach. Diana laughs and makes a turn to the south, bolting along and through the little belt of forest, bursting out into the sunlight again and then stumbling to a shocked halt, because there’s a… person, lying on the tideline. The body is strangely shaped, and disconcertingly anonymous in so many layers. The short hair is as yellow as Vesta’s, and there’s a thin trail of blood to the sea. Vesta catches up and they both stare for another frozen moment before Diana runs to help. She has never seen clothes anything like what the figure wears, all thick and stiff and square, but that’s nothing compared to the strangeness of the body the clothing covers._

_Diana has heard of men, that they have hair on their faces and no breasts, and a top-heavy look due to broad shoulders. This must be a man, even without facial hair. She wonders what happened to it even as she gathers him up in her arms. She has heard of all the terrible things men do, and of the plight of women in Man’s World, but it is not in her to turn away from someone injured and far from home. Vesta peppers her with questions as Diana runs back along the beach with the man in her arms. It seems cruel to jounce the poor creature this way, but she can tell that he'll die without a fully-equipped Healing House. She keeps running along the beach until she comes to the little point of sand where they started, just out of sight of the island's biggest meadow. Finally stopping, she looks at Vesta. “Help me get him to the Healing House.”_

_“Diana, what are you doing?” Vesta says even as she moves to help Diana tear enormous leaves off the trees._

_“We're going to pretend we're rethatching our old playhouse. Well, we're going to really do it, but after we carry this man to the Healing House in the load of leaves. You know your little sisters will love it, anyway.”_

_Vesta still looks nervous, but she laughs, helping to wrap the man in leaves. “You're right about that, Diana.” She carries her own load that really is all leaves, and follows Diana. No one notices them, because everyone makes temporary shelters and playhouses with the big leaves. Diana isn't worried about her people hurting this man, but time is of the essence, and they could never carry such a curiosity openly without people trying to stop them for questions. They're able to drop him off with a the Head Healer, who puts him in a private room and barely has the top half of his clothing off before Diana comes running back to finish stripping the patient and to help wash the salt from his skin._

_She’s more worried about the man’s injuries and the effect of prolonged exposure than anything else, but as she gets him clean she can’t help but take in all the fascinating differences of his form. His chest is so flat, just two gentle swells of muscle under skin that’s somehow smoother than she’s expecting, and his nipples are_ tiny _, little rarified pink beads that look almost like a little girl’s. She doesn’t touch, even though she wants to, fingertips as curious as her eyes. Instead she folds his stiff and ugly clothes and marvels at the way his waist nips in and then doesn’t come out again, leading to narrow, bony hips and… huh. It’s not that Diana has never seen a penis. There are male animals on the island, after all, but she has never seen the human version. It looks strange, soft and snub-nosed, but it has a protective skin like a clitoral hood. She supposes it’s a sensible counterpart, and covers him up._


	3. Girl On Girl

The healing rays feel very strange. Like heavy afternoon sunlight, but somehow hotter and cooler at the same time. They’re so bright that even with the blindfold Steve can see a dim, purple glow, and he feels noticeably better after every treatment. His loyal nurse is delighted to hear him say so, always there with her warm voice and those strong, strong hands. It feels like she could just pick him up and carry him like a baby if she wanted to, but she’s probably not _that_ strong. And then it turns out that she is, because she spills tea on his sheets and before he can even feel the wetness she has him in her arms. He can't help a little yelp of surprise, and she chuckles, making him keenly aware that his head is resting atop one large and shapely breast, the way a a woman really does hold a small child.

“It wasn't so very hot, but I would have had to change your dressings again.” She shifts him effortlessly to her left arm, and her can hear her stripping the sheets from the bed.

“Uh, are all the women here so...”

“Strong?” she asks, and laughs. It's a rich, musical sound. “We believe in physical fitness.”

“I'll say,” Steve mutters as she puts him down again. “Hey, nurse?” he adds in a more conversational tone.

“Yes, Steve?” He keeps telling himself not to thrill to the sound of his name in that rich voice, but no dice so far.

“I'm starting to feel well enough to be bored. Y'think you could get someone in to read to me or something if you don't want me seeing your island?”

“Of course, Steve. I have to go now, but I'll see what I can do.” It feels like forever, since he's just lying there, recovered enough not to drop off for an after-breakfast nap, but Steve has a good enough sense of time to know that it isn't actually very long before the nurse is back. “I”ve got a volume of poetry,” she says, “some stories for children, and a novel.”

“...What's the novel about?”

“It's about a woman who falls in love with a shapeshifter.”

“I guess we can start with that, if you don't mind.”

“I don't mind, Steve,” and he can hear her smile. She settles close to the bed and begins to read. Steve can tell right off that he has never even heard of this book, but it's pretty good. The main character of the book is a scientist, and she lives by the sea. Steve can't help but think of Eileen, the girl who walked out of a high school biology class because of some bunk about women not having scientific minds. He wishes she had a copy of this book, and then he forgets everything, because the shapeshifter is female. The nurse's voice doesn't shift at all when she describes these two women meeting in the surf and falling in love at first sight, like there isn't anything the slighest bit unusual about it. Maybe this island is some kind of German base after all, a wild anti-Nazi holdout from the Weimar era. Pretty good story, though. All about a plague among the shapeshifter's aquatic people, and the fearless fight to cure it. He's kind of annoyed to find himself falling asleep just when the shapeshifter and the scientist are starting to communicate, but the nurse just chuckles and promises to keep his place.

Steve sleeps, and dreams. First the Nazis are tromping right through his mother's begonias with bayonets leveled, and then before he can even try to do anything about it, he's crashing again, the world spinning in intolerable colors. He wakes up to find the nurse's strong hands holding him down.

“Steve, please! You'll hurt yourself!”

The alarm in her voice makes him still, and he shivers, trying to catch his breath. “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, that was a bad one.”

“I guess so.” She strokes his hair back from his forehead, her touch so gentle with all that strength. “Let met get you some tea.” She laughs, soft and musical. “This time I promise not to spill it.”


	4. Visions in a Glass

_Diana has been in love before, but this one is strange enough that it takes a while for her to recognize. Steve is sufficiently alien that she doesn't immediately realize just what kind of enjoyment she's taking in touching and caring for him. It's Vesta who points it out, telling Diana that rumors are already going around that the princess has fallen in love with a man. Diana blushes and bats at her friend, who dances out of the way, laughing at her. Later, as she watches Steve sleep, she wonders if Vesta is right. Steve's yellow hair is certainly as beautiful as a woman's, even if it is so brutally short. And there's something about the subtle shape of his lips. They're not as lush as she's used to, but they look soft, and are a pretty peach-pink. She wants to see his eyes, and has to leave the room sometimes to keep from touching him while he sleeps._

_It isn't just Steve's beauty that draws Diana to him. It's also his courage, and his fierce desire to get back to the fight he left behind. He doesn't seem to lust for battle the way men are reputed to do. Instead, he describes a megalomanical enemy, the kind that must be faced and fought, because they are too far gone for reason and compassion to work. After listening to him for a long time, Diana goes to her mother and asks about the war in Man's World. Mother sighs, and beckons Diana to come sit beside her._

_“I know little of it myself, daughter. I know that it is widespread and cruel, and I know that we must find out more, for we have become involved.”_

_“I couldn't leave him, Mother.”_

_“Of course not, dear. I would not have you fail to assist someone in need of help, and though we have withdrawn from the world, if it needs our help we must provide.” She puts her arm around Diana, and sighs. “I do wish life was less complicated, though. Come, Diana. We must see what we can see.”_

_The Scrying Mirror is one of the royal household's most prized possessions, a complicated piece of magical machinery located deep within the palace. Diana follows her mother past the guards, who bow the way they have for as long as Diana can remember, and she and Mother nod in return, always grateful for their protection and help. When they're off-duty, the guards are aunts to Diana, teaching and teasing her by turns, but with their helmets on and their spears in their hands, they're stern, remote, and watchful._

_Now Diana lights the scrying room's lamps for her mother as Mother stands before the mirror, manipulating it with the magical keys that tell it how much power to exert and which directions to look in. With enough light to see its visions without hurting their eyes, Diana and Mother stand before the mirror to learn about this war in Man's World._

_The Amazons know war, both as they wage it, with deep regret and with honor, and as men so often do, with hate and greed. But this, this_ abomination _, this vile and endless obscenity. Women and children burned, slaughter and destruction and famine and rape everywhere. There is no way the Amazons of Themyscira can learn about an enemy like this and not set themselves in opposition. At least Diana thinks so, but her mother sighs._

_“This is vast and there are so few of us. Even with our strength, we could do little.”_

_“But Mother! We must help somehow!”_

_“I did not say we wouldn't, Diana,” Mother assures her, stroking Diana's hair. “But we must also look after ourselves.”_

_Diana is about to protest again, when her mother assures her that she will send one Amazon with Steve Trevor, to keep him safe and to aid in the struggle of the Allied Powers against the Axis. Her counsel will be helpful both in the war effort, and in the empowerment of other women. She wil be chosen in a masked tournament, and no matter what, she will not be Diana, because the princess must remain on Themyscira. Diana can't help arguing, even though she knows it's useless. At last she capitulates, plotting all the while to disobey._


	5. Unseen Beauty

Even with his attentive nurse reading to him, Steve is getting really sick of lying here blindfolded. It's bad enough to have this woman leading him to the odd little... indoor latrine, maybe, that he's been using, but to know that all this is happening while the war is still going on makes it even harder to take. The room in question and all its furnishing and appliances seem to be made of stone, and the nurse has said something about composting, and somehow making human waste not carry disease, making it safe fertilizer. She seems to know a great deal about how everything works here, but not to be a hub of gossip, as though well-educated but somehow remote from the general population. She acts like the daughter of someone of rank, and the way she has simply neglected to tell him her name points to everyone on the island knowing it already.

He's napping when she comes back in and wakes him up with her quick, agitated movements. Everything in him springs to alertness, and he's trying to get up before he knows it. “What is it?” He slurs, and then her hands are on him again, gently pushing him back. “Hush,” she says. “I just had an argument with my mother. I'm sorry I woke you.”

Steve shivers, adrenaline rush subsiding slowly. “Okay. Good to know.”

He can hear her smile as she fluffs the pillow uder his head. “Soon, you'll be well enough to leave for home.”

“I guess things will go slower without those rays of yours, but it'll be a relief to let my mother know I'm all right.”

“What is she like?” the nurse asks, and Steve can feel himself smiling.

“She's a great lady. My father died when I was only about ten. Bad heart.”

“I'm sorry,” she says softly.

“Yeah, it was pretty rough. She had to get a job and I had to look after myself a lot.” He chuckles. “She went to work at a warehouse, and shocked them all with how strong she was. Ma's only five foot three and about a hundred and ten pounds soaking wet”

She chuckles. “Small women are often very fierce.”

“You're telling me! You should've heard the earful I got when she caught me with stolen goods.”

“Oh? Have I been nursing a criminal all this time?” That rich voice is bright and teasing, and Steve is seized anew with the desire to see her face.

“I'm a reformed character, I promise. She took me by the ear and marched me all the way back to the candy store and made me pay up.” He laughs. “And so I turned away from a life of crime.”

The nurse chuckles. “Good. You're far better off using your talents for the war effort.”

“Oh, so now you know about it?”

“We have certain resources, but we're not always paying attention.” Steve can hear her getting upset again. “We have seen evil before, but this...”

“That's pretty much what we said in my country,” he tells her, and is rewarded with a soft, almost-laugh.

“Indeed. I'm very curious about your country, Steve Trevor.” She warns him that it's time for an injection, and then slides the needle under his skin so neatly it hardly hurts. The injections make him sleep, and every time he wakes up he feels stronger. This time he half-wakes in the middle, though. Later on he doesn't know if he dreamed it or not, but in the moment he would swear that nurse is bending over him, body heat and myrrh-like scent so close... and then just a soft, soft touch on his forehead. He's pretty sure the nurse has just kissed him, and he wishes he were awake enough to properly enjoy it, or at least that he wasn't blindfolded and could actually see the beauty he has scented and felt and intuited. He feels the cool, silken weight of her hair against his cheek, and wishes that he was together enough to ask her what color it is. Chestnut brown, deepest black, golden or red or nearly white... he wants to know all her colors, her skin tone and the depths of her eyes.


	6. Homeland

_There is no way anyone but Diana can win this competition. She is the daughter of Hippolyta, princess of the Amazons, and most importantly, she loves Steve and the others don't. Diana runs faster, jumps higher, and fights with more grace and strength than any of her competitors. Everyone in the tournament is masked, hair covered by hoods so no favoritism can occur, and Diana only knows her friend Vesta by the way her ankles flex as she runs._

_When Diana wins everything down to the last tie-breaker round of Bullets and Bracelets with Mala, now the second-best athlete on the island, she stands proudly before her mother and tears off her mask and hood. Mother is angry, of course, but she has to acknowledge that the best Amazon has won. She gives Diana a special costume to show her new allegiance, with the emblems of the eagle and the stars._

_Mother also gives Diana one of the invisible planes used by almost all Amazons who leave the island. Diana hasn't flown in a while and makes a few circles of the island to reacquaint herself with the smooth controls and joyous height before coming down and loading Steve up. She has already given him one injection, and adds another because staying asleep is in his best interests. Every hour he's away from the healing rays will bring a corresponding decline in his condition, and rest will ameliorate some of it. Now Diana fusses to get him comfortably settled in the plane with the absolute bare minimum of jouncing, running to and fro until she's sure he has everything he needs. She looks over and sees her mother's eyes bright with tears, and takes a precious moment from her patient to go back one last time and hug her mother tightly._

_“I'll return, Mother,” she says. “Don't cry.”_

_“It's not that, Diana. It's that I know this love will change you. Be careful.”_

_“Always, Mother.” She smiles. “Besides, you know I'm bringing a telepathic radio with me. We'll be in touch.”_

_“True. Go with my blessing and that of all the gods, Diana of Themyscira.” She kisses Diana's cheek and lets her go. Diana's eyes fill, but she blinks her tears away to take off safely, escorted upward by the island's massive eagles, sacred to Apollo. Her homeland dwindles, and she watches the green leaves and white sand until they vanish into the blue of the sea. And then there is nothing but sky and sea, and she feels all the loneliness of a small girl sleeping away from home for the first time. She distracts herself first with setting her course and engaging the automatic pilot, and then with keeping Steve stable. His vital signs are already worse, and she sighs, brushing his hair out of his face and successfully resisting the urge to kiss his forehead (this time.)_

_It's a long flight to Washington, D.C., and she spends most of it studying Steve and just keeping him comfortable. He's dressed in a gown from the House of Healing, but Diana has taken care to neatly fold his uniform and put it into the bag with his other personal effects. It's a queenly bag, rich purple and soft as a dream of clouds. No one will be able to take offense at it._

_Hours and hours into their journey, Steve stirs. Diana smiles, and gently removes his blindfold. He blinks up at her with a pair of big, sky-blue eyes that make her heart flutter in her chest. He's so beautiful that it strikes her as funny when he looks thunderstruck and says, “An angel? A beautiful angel...” He faints before Diana can introduce herself or explain, and she sighs, making sure he's all right. There are hours more to the journey, but at last she touches down in an overgrown field beside an abandoned barn._

_It's just before dawn, so Diana rolls the plane into the barn for safekeeping, arranges Steve and his possessions in her arms, and runs to the Army hospital, guided by previous reconnaissance through the Scrying Mirror. There's no one on the streets and she's able to move quickly. No one bothers her on her journey, and the hospital staff just stare when she bursts in with their missing man in her arms._


	7. Beautiful Angel

When Steve wakes up in an American hospital, with an IV stand and no healing rays, he's able to put his vision of heaven into perspective. No matter what anyone says, he knows damn well that he was really on an island for those three weeks, and he's pretty sure he caught a glimpse of his nurse in transit. There seemed to be nothing around them but sky, but Steve was only conscious for a moment and all of his attention was taken up by the angel. He's not dead and therefore pretty sure she wasn't really an angel, but it's a convenient soubriquet, especially since he has another attentive nurse now. Nurse Prince, a mousy little thing but a real firecracker underneath her professional calm. At first Steve is fading in and out and just knows that someone is there, another woman with large hands (but not as large) and a soothing scent, but like bittersweet medicine instead of myrrh. He mumbles a bit about the angel, but doesn't wake up properly for a few days, until Nurse Prince is telling him to just open his eyes right now.

“You've slept long enough, there's a good boy,” she says, and Steve chuckles.

“Mornin', nurse.”

“And good morning to you too,” she says, and then tortures him with injections and an insipid hospital breakfast. After the nice little salads and choice grilled meat on the island it's a bit much to take, but she stands over him and gets him to eat every bit, as tough as any drill sergeant Steve has ever met. She's also fair, though, and lets him have little indulgences as he works hard to get better, like his first proper drink since the day before the crash.

Of course, as he gets better it starts to wear on him, and on a particularly bad day he sighs, gazing out the window. “You're pretty swell to me, Diana, but I'm just wasting away here! I should be back on my job.”

She sniffs, tilting her head in that arch little way she does, expression peppery behind her big round glasses. “I don't believe for a second that it's your job, Steve Trevor. You just want to find that 'beautiful angel' of yours.”

He laughs, looking back to his current nurse. “She really was something, Diana.” Even if he never sees her again, that one glimpse will haunt him for the rest of his life. Steve has seen a lot of pretty girls in his time, but the angel had had _majesty_. A big woman, with real muscle in her bare arms. Some guys would say it was too much, but to Steve it had just been magnificent. Like a lioness, a creature just as strong as she is beautiful. Her skin had been perfect too, a rich olive-gold sort of color either naturally or from the sun, glowing with health, and her eyes... Her eyes are the thing that struck Steve the most. They had been so deep, so dark. Full of mystery and mercy and intelligence. In that way, Diana actually looks a bit like her. Her mouth is pretty too, but what average woman can compare to an angel?

For the next few days, Steve is actually willing to lie quietly and heal, even if he is getting bored. He recognizes this phase of recovery, and knows what he has relapsed since leaving the island. He hopes America discovers the secrets of those heaing rays some time soon, but he's pretty calm until he overhears something about an increased draft quota and Camp Merrick. Merrick has been a likely target of Axis interference for some time, and Steve knows that the published threat from the enemy has real teeth. There actually is a gas that will penetrate all current masks, and Steve knows they'll use it at Camp Merrick. There's no time to think it through or worry about what Diana will say, and he gets up, trying to ignore how much everything still aches. He's also going to catch hell about proper channels, but every minute spent explaining to the brass could cost the life of a man on the ground, and Steve isn't going to stand for that.


	8. Money Talks

_Diana can't help but feel a bit lonely and adrift without Steve to nurse, but she's also fascinated by this new country. The women wear the most interesting things, even if they do use so much fabric, and of course the men are fascinating. Many of them are silly-looking or ugly, though. And none of them are as beautiful as Steve. She needs to find a way to be close to him. People stare and whisper, and a few of the men let out loud and irritating whistles for some reason. Diana is going to ask one of them about it when she hears some others trying to commit a robbery._

_These men stare too, but they also fire guns at her when she gets between them and their car. Bullets and bracelets all over again, but this time Diana has to worry about bystanders, and it makes her angry. This is such a sloppy way to try and kill someone, so likely to hurt others beyond the target. She tells them just how careless and stupid they're being as she throws them into a heap. Policemen arrive soon after, and want to talk to her, but Diana doesn't have the time and runs off rather than answer._

_Yet_ another _man comes after her, using a car to keep up. Diana's mother had mentioned the effect Amazons have on men, but this is ridiculous. Still, he pushes his machine to the limit to drive alongside her and yell out a business proposition. The idea is good enough that she stops, because while Themyscira runs on a system of tribute, protection, and sharing, Diana knows that Man's World uses currency and that if she's going to stay she'll need some. This particular man apparently ensures that those who perform are compensated, and thinks that bullets and bracelets is a good trick. It's a fairly common game on Themyscira, but Diana supposes that it must be unknown in a place without Amazons, and she has always been good at it._

_The man's name is Al Kale, and she wonders if it's a common thing to be surnamed after a vegetable in Man's World. She forgets to ask, busy learning about American theatre and their inns, which are called hotels and charge money rather than labor. It's strange, but the place has no wood to chop, anyway, and there's something called a Health Code that means she can't assist in the kitchen, the only other thing she could be sure of fully understanding. Kale also gives her what he calls an advance, telling her to buy some regular clothes because she can't wear her costume everywhere. Diana refrains from explaining and buys two of the long, excessively modest dresses. Sack-like as they are, they're also cute, with interesting prints._

_Performing turns out to be a lot of fun, and they're calling her Wonder Woman within two days. The way the little girls in the audience light up to see a woman so strong makes Diana feel like she's actually doing something important while she kills time and gathers currency. She isn't quite sure how much the enormous wad of bills is worth, but even if they're the lowest denomination that's still enough for many of the things she has seen for sale._

_By the end of two weeks Diana knows that people in Man's World are much less trustworthy than Amazons. It only follows, with so much violence and lying going on, but she's still disappointed in Kale when he tries to steal all her earnings after she resigns, sure she has enough to support herself for a good long while of looking after Steve. Catching him and stealing it back takes little effort, and she gives Kale a hard shake, telling him to be more honest in future. That done, she goes to the Army Hospital and forgets all about Steve for a moment because a woman is sitting on the steps and crying like her heart is broken._

_Diana sits beside her. “What's wrong, little sister?” Unsurprisingly, the problem involves men and currency. This poor nurse doesn't have enough currency to travel to where her man is, and he doesn't have enough to make up the difference, which is a hundred dollars. Diana has many notes with 100 on them, and knows she can help._


	9. Guardian Angel

By the time Steve reaches Camp Merrick, everything hurts. He keeps a lid on it, though, standing tall as he reports to the C.O., giving no sign that he feels like his head is splitting and that his muscles and joints ache like he has the flu. He lays his plan out as firmly and succinctly as he can, and thankfully he's able to borrow a plane and make circles over the camp, waiting for what he knows is coming. He's dizzy and sick, but grits his teeth and keeps watch.

Steve is vindicated in his impetuousness, because not even a full twenty minutes goes by before the bastard shows up. Steve has only caught a glimpse of this stratospheric bomber before, and is shocked at how fast it comes streaking in. Even with his head so bad and his limbs so stiff, Steve opens fire, scoring several direct hits that do nothing. He has never seen armor this good, and after a few frantic moments he realizes what he has to do. He isn't often frightened in combat. He's too busy, but right now he feels nauseating dread, remembering the pain and the desperate tumble through the air and the crash into the sea. He's going to have to do it again, and he can't help a little whimper of wretched terror even as he swings the plane around to ram into the side of his enemy. He doesn't pray this time, just opens it up all the way and slams into the bomber as hard as he can, ejecting before impact.

Steve yanks the ripcord on his chute, knowing by the feeling and a glance up that the shrapnel has torn it to shreds. There was a pretty good chance of that all along, and he yells, “Keep 'em flying, boys!” to the little human specks below, wanting to die well. And then something swoops by, huge and fast and close, but he can't see anything. And then a door opens in the sky, disgorging a rope ladder and the angel. Her beautiful face is a mask of worried concentration, and her arm is like iron, knocking the wind out of Steve as she scoops him up. Even as he frantically wheezes and chokes, he's grateful.

“You're the beautiful angel!” He manages to husk at last, and she laughs and frowns at the same time, lightly rubbing his back.

“A guardian angel, more like! Are you all right?”

Steve nods, and then looks when she points out at the sky, where the pilot of the bomber is drifting down with his intact parachute. “There's your bomb-slinger! We'd better collect him and ask him a few questions. Can you take the controls?”

“Born to fly, ma'am,” Steve says, and does as asked. The invisible plane's controls are a little different, as one would expect, but nothing he can't figure out. He keeps the plane as steady as he can as the angel goes down the ladder again. The bastard shoots at her point blank, but she just swings her arm in a flash of silver and the bullet ricochets off her bracelets with a loud ping. A moment later she decks the guy with a right hook Steve would hate to be in the way of, and hauls him into the plane. Up close Steve can see the blood, and realizes that this man has been shredded by shrapnel as sure as Steve's chute was. “Poor bastard won't live to talk,” he says, even as the angel lays him out and starts working over him, apparently too good to let even Nazi scum bleed out without trying to help.

“You're right,” he says, voice bubbly with blood. “But soon others will come, and you won't be able to stop them all!” He hacks and coughs, shuddering and then going quiet. The angel sighs, bowing her head for a long moment. Steve isn't sure what to say, but when she looks up, her eyes are dry.

“He was right,” Steve says. “I found their base once, but they moved while I was out of commission.” He circles the base as he speaks, surprised when the angel smiles.

“I might be able to help you, Steve.”


	10. Mirror

_Diana has always had a weakness for headstrong women, so she has to suppose it has carried over to Steve. It's the only explanation for the feeling of fondness that lies right alongside her rage at the darling fool for doing this to himself. The doctor berates her for leaving the room, and she supposes that she really ought to have found someone to watch Steve for the entire minute and a half it had taken to go and fetch him some more water, but she hadn't seen the enemy threat in the newspaper until she had come back to find him gone. Over-exertion probably won't kill him, but only because of exposure to the healing rays on Themyscira, and her poor over-worked supervisor doesn't know about that._

_In the search for Steve, Diana slips away and runs to the barn, fast enough to be a blur to anyone who sees her. She can only hope no one has discovered her hideout, and is profoundly relieved to find everything where she left it._

_Diana Prince is a smaller woman than Diana of Themyscira, and there's a glorious flowering feeling to removing the spell on her appearance to become full size. “Athena's owl,” Diana says in the empty barn, “it's good to be myself again.” She's standing in her skin and her bracelets, Diana Prince's clothing neatly folded and set aside so she wouldn't rip it during the transformation. She chuckles as she pulls on her own clothes, remembering the surprise on Diana Prince's face when Diana had first showed her the mirror spell. It isn't very powerful, but it's enough to overcome the basic differences in size and coloration between two women, particularly two who both have gold-toned skin and dark hair and eyes. Amazons have used it for centuries to blend in with the populace of Man's World when they must travel abroad._

_Flying to Camp Merrick, Diana tunes into the army's communications, knowing that she'll hear that Steve has put himself in danger somehow. She's still not prepared to catch sight of him falling to his certain doom. She dives and catches him, wanting to hold him forever. He feels so strong and so fragile at the same time , and he stares up at her with those spring-sky eyes and says, “You're the beautiful angel!”_

_“A guardian angel, more like! Are you all right?” And of course he says he is, because he's brave and stubborn. Diana catches the other pilot as he comes down, but it turns out that she can't do anything for him but ease the pain of his death. That's always a sorrow, even when the person in question is an enemy. She takes a moment to feel the grief, and then looks up at Steve as he says that he doesn't know where their base is. “I might be able to help you, Steve.”_

_No matter where Diana is, the speech of birds makes sense to her. She has Steve fly the plane as she rides on the roof, reaching out with all her awareness until a flock of sparrows tells her what she wants to know. She guides Steve to the enemy base, and he doesn't even question her information. Thanks to the properties of the plane, they're able to land undetected on the small coastal island the group is using._

_“Damn, I wish we had masks that would work against this stuff,” Steve says, watching the compound through the wall. “I know they're making it here.”_

_“Is it a mechanical problem?”_

_“Basically? I'm no scientist, but I got a sample and the lab boys said that the actual particles of poison were so tiny we had no mesh fine enough to catch them.”_

_“Oh?” Diana says, and pulls out some extra undergarments, made of the finest Themysciran fabric. “What about these?”_

_Steve flushes bright red, but holds a pair of drawers up to the light. “You know, I think these will work.”_

_“It's a chance we'll have to take,” Diana says, and slices two pairs apart, finding a good way to tie them on quickly at need._

_“I can't help but feel a little... ungentlemanly about this,” Steve says, and Diana laughs._

_“I don't know much about your people's rules, but surely it's all right to take a lady's undergarments with her permission.”_


	11. Mission Accomplished

The angel isn't just strong and fast, she's also stealthy. Steve almost loses track of her as they slink through the underbrush, her skin a rich gold in the dappled sunlight that makes her blend in with the earth and with last year's fallen leaves. Her footsteps make no sound at all, and if this wasn't so serious, Steve would get really distracted watching those long legs in action.

As it is, the angel gestures for him to take one perimeter guard while she gets the other. It's a neat little operation, hauling them into the underbrush to knock them out and tie them up with their own shirts. Along with all the angel's other skills, she ties knots like a goddamn sailor. He still has no idea how she knew the location of this base, but if she's conning him it's probably a long enough game for her to help him win this battle.

“Doors are locked,” she reports, and takes a few steps back from the massive wooden doors, “so we'll have to let ourselves in.” She rams it with one pretty shoulder, and the effect is like an honest-to-God battering ram.

“Holy shit,” Steve intones with great reverence, and the angel just smiles at him. He follows as she charges inside, carrying a door before her and hurling it at the foe with a cheery, “How nice to make your acquaintance!” Smart, strong, and saucy. Steve is beginning to worry that he really is in love.

The tanks of poison gas are right there, and Steve yells, “Masks!” as the angel slings another enemy operative into his friends, bowling them all over. She hears him though, and pulls out her mask, getting it tied on in a moment. Once they're both as secure as they can be, Steve shoots the tank, because they're outnumbered and even with the angel's power he doesn't like their odds. He says a little silent prayer that the masks will work, and it's apparently answered. Everyone around them starts coughing and hacking, but Steve still feels fine. Right up until the head rat of this particular dump comes out and flips the suicide switch, bringing the whole place down around Steve's ears. He catches a flash of color as the angel bounds clear of the whole mess with one impossible leap, and then everything is dark. His leg is in excruciating pain again, and he's covered in chunks of the building. This close to the doorway he had partial cover, but the rest of them are done for. Steve hopes he won't be joining them, and then hears the angel calling his name. She sounds frantic, and he manages to poke one arm out. A minute later rubble is flying, and soon Steve is free. He pulls his mask off, the gas disapated by the explosion.

“Are you hurt, Steve? Why didn't you jump like I did?”

“Jump like you did?” Steve asks, dragging himself out. “What am I, a kangaroo?”

“Your leg!” she yelps, and rushes to help him onto his good leg, taking the weight of the other side. “Oh no, it's broken again!”

“I've had worse,” Steve says, leaning on her and breathing in the myrrh-and smoke scent of her hair. He's nauseous with pain, but he has had worse. “And it's good to know you care,” he says, and the angel laughs, tenderly picking him up. She's so gentle with his leg that the movement hardly hurts, and pillows his head on one generous breast. It's nice to be able to see her this time, even if it makes him blush. She carries him back to her plane, and how in the world she knows it's there, he will never know. He just relaxes and lets her carry him aboard, where she gives him something that makes morphine feel like aspirin, and splints his leg.

“My brave boy,” she says softly, and brushes his hair out of his face, gazing down at him with those dark eyes.

“Just trying to serve my country.”

“By driving your superiors and all the hospital staff crazy,” she says, and taps his nose like he's a very small puppy adorably misbehaving. He probably shouldn't like it.

“A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.”

She laughs. “I wouldn't know about that, but I know about stubborn warriors.” She kisses his forehead and he nearly faints, feeling warm all over. “Now sleep, and I'll take you back to Nurse Prince. She must be worried about you.”

Steve nods, yawning. “Yeah. She's a good kid.”


	12. Trade Secrets

_Diana really wishes that Steve would actually let himself heal properly, and spends most of the way back sitting in on the floor with Steve's head in her lap. Having gotten a look at so many other men, she can really appreciate Steve's beauty. The bones of his face are strong and fine at the same time, and his mouth is actually lush compared to so many other men who just have slits in their faces and no lips to speak of at all. His facial hair is starting to come back in, and she smiles, rubbing its prickly softness with and against the grain. On Themyscria she had had to shave it, with help from Mala, who shaves her legs and under her arms, her own hair making her itch too much to leave it be. Steve had said the same thing about his beard, and she smiles, wondering if it would grow out the same yellow as what's on his scalp, or if it would be like the golden-brown between Fauna's thighs._

_Actually getting Steve and Diana Prince back into the hospital is tricky, but Diana of Themyscira isn't one of those girls who are all body and no brain. The CO of Camp Merrick has already called the hospital after realizing that Steve wasn't supposed to leave it, so Diana hides her plane in the barn again, throws on a Themysciran raincloak, and runs Steve to the nearest occupied house, setting him on the back porch just as he starts to wake up. She watches from a nearby copse of big trees, relieved to see Steve wake up enough reach up and press the doorbell. Diana is still more relieved when a sensible-looking elderly woman comes out. She's clearly startled, but checks Steve's credentials and brings him a cup of something. It's a warm day and there's no sense in a non-Amazon trying to move Steve without help. Diana lingers until Steve is in the ambulance sent out by the army hospital, and then bolts back to the barn to change back to Diana Prince._

_After a furtive run back to the neighborhod of the hospital, she slows to a walk, and Nurse Prince comes up the steps just in time to help unload Captain Steve Trevor from the ambulance. She does her best not to show her dismay as the doctors frown over Steve's leg. It's just a re-break, not a traumatic amputation, but they're murmuring about fat embolism and lost bone. Apparently the best they can do is fuse the whole thing, leaving Steve dragging a bad leg and unfit for active duty. At least, that's the best they'll do without a miracle._

_That night Diana uses her telepathic radio to contact her mother. It's so good to hear her voice and feel her presence again, and she nows just who Diana needs to talk to about building a portable healing ray. The portable model isn't as strong as the one in the Healing House, but it will work for what Diana needs. She spends the whole night cannibalizing what she needs from the plane's redundant circuits and putting together an ugly little gun that shoots a weak but genuine ray._

_For the next three weeks, she sedates Steve for his own good and to make sure that he doesn't wake up when she sneaks into his room in the dead of night and the stillness of afternoon to blast his leg with the ray. One advantage of the thing's weakeness and small size is that the light is a focused beam, and won't cause Steve's eyes any damage even if he does wake up. It doesn't fill the room with a tell-tale purple glow, either, which comes in particularly handy at night._

_When he's awake, she joins the general chorus of disbelief when he mentions Wonder Woman. It hurts a bit because like any honorable person Steve hates having his word doubted, but she can't afford to have anyone connect Diana Prince to Wonder Woman. Instead Nurse Prince is brisk and firm and does not put up with Steve's continued sulking. This eases a great deal when the doctors find that his leg is healing so well that it's nothing short of miraculous._


	13. Dream Girl

There are few things Steve hates more than being given credit for another person's work. He would usually say 'another man' in the unthinking assurance of his work consisting of dangerous military missions, but this time it was Wonder Woman who pulled all the weight, and absolutely no one will believe it. Even Nurse Prince just clucks at him about hurting his head in the explosion, and hallucinations and delusions as she arranges his leg comfortably.

“Damn it, Diana,” he says at the end of the first day when she's checking to make sure he'll be comfortable during the night, “there really is a Wonder Woman, and she was there! Hell, she's the one who found the base!”

Diana sighs, and somehow magically rearranges the pillows to make him approximately ten times more comfortable. “Steve, I'm not sure what happened, but I doubt some vaudeville entertainer who hasn't been seen in months showed up in full costume to assist you.”

It takes everything Steve has to not actually stick his tongue out at her like an obstinate kid, and he turns and puts his face to the wall, which isn't that much more grown up. Nice as it is to know that Wonder Woman actually cares about him, having to wait even longer on his damned leg puts him into an even worse mood. He can't even move out of bed for ten days, until they're reasonably sure his own displaced marrow won't kill him. Nurse Prince is an absolute champ, though, and when Steve sends one of the other nurses out in tears with his bad temper, she marches right in and tells him that she's only not shaking him because that could actually damage him.

“Steve Trevor, I am going to bring that girl back in here and you are going to apologize to her if I have to strap you to this bed until you agree!”

He's still in a pretty bad mood, but guilt is setting in and he rolls his eyes, squirming a bit. “You don't have to get out the straps, Prince. I'm sorry.”

She smiles then, and actually strokes his hair. “Good boy. Wait here.” She clicks away in her white kitten heels and a moment later is back with her colleague, who is very young and whose eyes are still red-rimmed, making Steve feel like he just kicked a puppy and joined the fucking Axis.

“Hey,” Steve says as gently as he can. “I'm sorry I got sore at you, none of this is your fault.”

She smiles, still a little watery. “Thank you, Captain Trevor. You weren't so bad, I've just been having a hard day.”

“Well, I'm sorry for making it any worse. You've been an absolute doll and I've been a heel.”

She laughs softly, and assures him that he's only a bad patient, not the worst she has ever seen. Nurse Prince smiles beatifically, and tells the girl to go have some coffee and a break while she adjusts Captain Trevor's traction. He's a little worried she'll be punitively rough about it, but she's as gentle and assured as always.

“Thanks, Diana,” he says softly, and she smiles down at him.

“You're welcome, Steve.”

At moments like this, he really doesn't know what to make of her. It almost seems like the poor kid is falling for him, but that feeling vanishes a second later when she makes him take his medicine, dry and maternal as ever. Steve watches her walk away, trim little figure about as unflattered as it can be by her starched white uniform. For the first time he wonders what she looks like off-duty. He really can't picture her without the severely-pinned hair or the big round glasses, and starts to slowly drift back to sleep, still wondering and struggling a little to stay awake. Being sedated all the time is irritating, too, but he supposes that he can't expect much else after escaping and getting himself hurt again. Still, he could be doing desk work if he were awake more, and the pills give him strange dreams where a female shadow with purple eyes that glow like headlights slinks into his room and stands over him, blasting that strange light down onto the bed. The dreams are spooky, but he knows somehow that the shadow doesn't want to hurt him.


	14. Poison

__

After three weeks of ray treatment, a pair of men who claim to be from the Intelligence Service come for Steve. Diana isn't certain of all the various rules and regulations, and she still has difficulty telling men apart when they don't look particularly interesting. These are just large and slab-like and graceless, and there's something suspicious about them. Even after they show Steve a lot of papers and say he needs to come back to headquarters, she tries to use the authority of a nurse to keep him here. His leg is mending well with her treatment, but he's only out of bed because Diana is pushing him in a wheeled chair for some air and a break in the monotony. They ignore her, and Steve catches her eye as they announce their intent to wheel him into the ambulance they've brought. He knows that something is wrong, but apparently thinks that it's for the best to play along. They decide to bring Diana as well, since Steve obviously still needs a nurse. Making her voice quaver and putting on her best pretense of fright, Diana takes just enough time to pick up her bag. 

One of them grabs her forearm and tows her along with a truly infuriating certainty that this weak little woman can't break his grip. Even a child on Themiscyra, years away from Amazon strength, would have been taught the right way to move to free herself from a stronger foe. But women in Man's World are kept as ignorant and helpless as possible, so Diana follows him meekly, acting more frightened than ever when they strap Steve to the stretcher, gag him, and bind her hands.

For whatever reason they don't bother to gag her. Perhaps it's some assumption that Steve could direct their escape but that she couldn't plan one herself. At least it allows her to ask him if he's going along with this in order to learn about their enemies. He nods, and she sighs.

"Captain Trevor, you are the most troublesome patient I have ever had." His eyes crinkle at the corners even if the gag won't let him smile, and Diana wants to kiss him almost as much as she wants to escape.

The drive lasts for hours, and Diana can feel all the bumps and ruts of a long series of back roads. Already exasperated and worried, this does nothing for her mood. Finally the ambulance grinds to a halt, and as the two men haul Diana and Steve out of the back, she blinks through the blinding glare of flashlights to see a mansion that looks deserted except for all these nice helpful guards, who walk them inside. They're at least reasonably careful with Steve's stretcher, and Diana spares a moment to look around. The place is opulent in a Man's World style she's coming to recognize, but dilapidated, full of dust and mildew and cobwebs. 

One room is more lived-in, at least, and lit by a single lamp. A hunched figure sits at the edge of the circle of light, wearing a hooded coat that otherwise looks like a deep green version of the white ones doctors wear, along with a black domino mask that also covers her nose. Well, it could easily be a man under there, but the gloved hands are dainty, and Diana cannot believe people as silly as men run _everything_.

"Remove their gags." The voice is thin and raspy, sexless. "Captain Trevor. I've spared your life for the pleasure of hearing you talk."

Steve has gone past white to faintly green on his stretcher, but manages a pretty good smirk anyway. "That's big-hearted of you, doc. Almost makes me feel bad to be so disappointing."

"So you know Doctor Poison when you see him. Good." He leans forward, grinning under the mask. "What else do you know?"

"Enough to keep my mouth shut," Steve says, and Diana tenses all over because one of the guards is poised to twist Steve's bad leg, and she will not allow that to happen. Doctor Poison waves a hand, and he relaxes.

"No need for that. Put him on the table." 

One of them steps into the shadows and switches on another lamp, illuminating an operating table. Diana can barely restrain herself as the guards transfer Steve onto it from the stretcher. At least they don't jostle him too much. She's trembling with rage as they strap Steve down, but it probably looks like fear. "You really should tell us what you know, swine. We'll find out soon enough."

Steve snorts in derision. "The only thing I'll tell you is where to go, you son of a bitch."


	15. Truth and Consequences

Steve is terrified, but damned if he's going to let Doctor Poison know that. The way the bastard just chuckles and starts monkeying with a syringe is really not helping, and Steve risks a glance over at Diana, making sure she's still all right. It's bad enough to be tortured, but if they harm a hair on her head he's never going to be able to live with himself again. Might as well just jump off a bridge somewhere.

He looks back to Poison as the doctor turns to him, loaded syringe in hand. "This syringe," he says, holding it poised in the light like a jeweler showing off a necklace, "is filled with scopolamine, morphine, and a few little seasonings of my own. Do you know what that mix makes?"

"Truth serum," Steve growls, kicking himself for not thinking of this option. He's willing to die for his country and he can take a hell of a lot of pain, but things like this are harder to control.

"Clever boy," Poison says, and Diana suddenly busts loose, landing an elbow and a jab that make him wonder if her daddy was a boxer.

"Don't you dare give that drug to Captain Trevor," she yells, in full-on nurse high dudgeon, "It might kill him!" She's goddamn beautiful, all fierce and resolved and strong, but of course it doesn't do any good. Poison does drop the syringe, but only so he can put a scalpel to Steve's throat. He hates being a hostage, but there really isn't anything he can do about it..

"I'll kill your patient right here if you don't cooperate! Pick up that syringe, girl," he snarls, and Diana does, looking terrified again. It breaks Steve's heart. "Sterilize it, I want the truth, not a festering wound."

"Yes, Doctor," Diana says, and goes to her bag, sterilizing the syringe and returning in a moment.

"Now, inject the captain," Poison says, still holding the scalpel on Steve. He looks into Diana's eyes as she lines the tip of the needle up again his neck, right where Poison tells her to, and almost swallows his tongue as she slides it home and winks at him as she presses the plunger. Those pretty lips shape the word 'saline' and Steve wants to kiss her. He twitches and jerks but doesn't play it up too much, letting his mouth go slack and his eyes slide out of focus as he starts to babble. Giving false information has always been a favorite trick of Steve's, and it comes easily to him now. He puts on a show of drugged and dogged resistance, letting each imitation pearl of wisdom out too slowly for them not to be real. He's not sure if Diana is pretending to be terrified or not after that flawless performance with the syringe.

Before too long Poison is grinning at him again. "A wonderful drug, isn't it? I've learned all I need, but I'm keeping you all the same." He gestures to the guards, who come to move Steve back onto the stretcher as Diana pleads with them to return him to the hospital. "Silence!" Poison snaps. "If you make the slightest disturbance, Trevor will be shot! Lock her up," he adds, and a third guard comes in from the hallway to grab Diana's arm about six times too roughly, as far as Steve is concerned. He keeps sight of her white uniform for as long as he can, and then it turns a corner or he does. He's pretty tired from all the excitement and would have to pretend to be doped up even if he wasn't, so he just lets these Axis gorillas move him around like a sack of potatoes. To their credit, they don't hurt his leg _too _much, and since he's on a cot and supposed to be full of morphine and can't get up to much without crippling himself, he closes his eyes and tries to sleep. It takes him a long time, and he finds himself praying again, silently begging God to do whatever He can to keep these sons of bitches from hurting Diana. Being unable to do anything better for the kid makes him feel like crying, but he grits his teeth and keeps it inside.__


	16. Reinforcements

__

In the interests of maintaining the identity of an ordinary Man's World nurse, Diana lets these stupid louts bind her hands behind her back and lock her into one of the bedrooms. She has the feeling that they're thinking of doing far more than just leaving her here, but apparently duty calls. It's just as well, since dispatching all of them and running away with Steve in her arms really would sink the fiction of Diana Prince. As it is she stays on the mattress where they put her. Once she hears them get a respectable distance from the door, she shreds the tough rope and sits up, stretching her arms.

"Hmph. Chains would've been more fun to break," she murmurs, and climbs out the window, neatly shutting it behind her. She whistles softly to the local birds, and a little sharp-eyed creature she has no right name for answers her, and tells her where her bag is.

On Themyscira Diana is known for her strength. She helps people move, and assists in heavy building tasks, and is in general a byword for well-developed Amazon strength. Sometimes she feels that her stealth does not receive enough credit. Now she manages to sneak through the occupied house to grab the bag and creep out. In the quiet of the forest she changes into Wonder Woman and stuffs Diana Prince's clothes into the bag, tucking it between the roots of a tree, covering it over with soft green moss.

She lies low until the guards have passed by on their search for Diana Prince, and then works her way back into Poison's installation. She has used her time in Man's World to learn about its weapons, and so she knows how to sabotage them. She spends a sleepless afternoon, evening, and night undoing every bit of Poison's arsenal that she can lay hands on.

She has to leave then, running to her usual hideout where it's safe to sleep. She tries not to worry about her poor Steve, in enemy hands without her to take care of him. He's brave to the point of foolishness, and she prays to Athena to look after him. The goddesses don't always answer, and then not always obviously, but she feels a glow of divine warmth, and is able to sleep.

The next morning she goes to the Holliday Women's College for reinforcements. This may be war, but a group of brave young women can rescue Steve and capture Poison without bloodshed. Her contact is a girl named Etta Candy, who had been friendly and very brave during a near-lethal bout with appendicitis, complicated by an infection at the surgical site. The girl at the desk doesn't recognize Wonder Woman, saying something about revealing new band costumes and someone called The Dean not liking them. Diana doesn't know much about scholars in Man's World, and lets the assumption stand, asking where Etta is. Directed to the music hall, Diana has to have her old patient pointed out to her. The Etta whose treatment she assisted with had been a sallow girl, skinny and flabby at the same time, with only a tiny fraction of her rightful beauty left to her.

That was months ago, right after Diana arrived. Now Etta is gloriously fat, with thick, round arms and mighty thighs and a big, soft belly. Her skin is a healthy, clear white, blushed with pink, and her hair is a mass of shining red-gold curls. Diana grins at her. "Gracious, Etta, I'd never have known you from the snapshot Nurse Prince showed me!"

She grins back, green eyes sparkling. "Yeah, I was doing pretty bad last time she saw me! Now I can eat anything I want, and march with the band again. Want one?" She holds out a little box of candies, and Diana's stomach growls thunderously. "You need something more substantial," Etta says before Diana can speak. She leads her out, stopping to get her own jacket and to borrow one for Diana, and then takes her to a dining hall and pays for her to take a tray around and choose things. Food is done the same way at the hospital, and this is also not very good, but Diana hasn't eaten since early the previous day and devours every bit of it as she explains the situation to Etta, that the man Nurse Prince loves is in danger, and that she needs a group of girls to help rescue him.


	17. Dance

Steve passes a miserable day and night, relieved only by the anxious snarling and running footsteps of the guards, which tell him that Diana must have gotten away. It's a consolation for the miserable, nauseating pain in his leg. It's at least no worse than usual, but usually he has some nice nurse (often Prince) to make sympathetic noises and give him some morphine. Now he has nothing but the lack of victorious noise around him. It's got to be four in the morning and they still haven't found her. It's a great comfort, even as he lies here in a cold sweat, feeling each beat of his heart as a pulse of pain in his leg.

He eventually falls asleep or passes out, and wakes up with no idea of the current time or date. It's dark and dank and the dust makes him sneeze. His mouth tastes like the bottom of a birdcage and he feels like his stomach is touching his backbone and his teeth are floating. This is all on top of his leg aching like a rotten tooth. He has had better mornings, and this one doesn't improve when Poison shows up.

The bastard has confidential memos, and this amount of leakage is just embarrassing. Worse yet, his filthy 'Reverso' has shown up in nearby Army drinking water already. The stuff makes a man do the opposite of whatever he's told, and has already wreaked a fair amount of havoc. If no one traces Steve here, it's only going to get worse. They've already got hundreds of madmen in the stockade thanks to Poison and his little pals, and Steve isn't sure if he's more ashamed of his organization or angry on its behalf. At least on American soil the boys shouldn't have to worry, damn it.

“It's a very attentive host who brings in the morning mail,” Steve growls between clenched teeth, and Poison lets out the most sinister little giggle Steve has ever heard. It's a positively girlish sound, and colder than winter starlight. Steve dearly wishes that it wasn't best policy to admit to knowing nothing, or he'd mention Diana getting away, and maybe wipe that smirk off of Poison's mouth.

"Doctor," one of these hulking Krauts says, poking his head in, "still no sign of the nurse."

"Fool," Poison shrieks, "keep looking! You know the penalty if she is not found!" 

His voice is high and cracked, and Steve winces as the sound seems to drill into his brain and all the way down to his leg. For a small mercy, Poison leaves a moment later, apparently remembering that he has more important things to do today than taunt Steve. Steve has more important things to do than mope, and manages to get his ear to the wall, listening to the guards outside. Apparently Diana's bonds were destroyed, and Steve smiles, because that has to have been Wonder Woman in action. If she's on the job, he has a lot less to worry about.

Steve isn't the world's best Intelligence officer, but he is well-trained and not inexperienced. He has a good ear for the tenor of an installation, but at first he can't believe what he starts to hear in the next hour or two. Phonograph music, of all things. Some pretty decent jazz, even. Steve has heard better, but then again, Steve doesn't consider himself too good to set foot in mostly-black bars. Odder than the music are the rhythmic footfalls of... are they dancing up there?

It turns out that they are dancing up there, because three women come downstairs to coax away the idiots guarding Steve's cell. One of the voices belongs to Wonder Woman herself, and Steve is about as prepared as anyone can be to see her knock the door off of its hinges like it's some kind of stage prop. She pauses, framed in the doorway like something out of the world's greatest pulp magazine, and cocks her head to one side.

"That was easy."

"My beautiful angel," Steve says, and she smiles, coming over to snap the straps keeping him on the bunk.

"What's an angel? I'd rather be a woman." She scoops him up like he weighs nothing, very careful of his leg, and takes him upstairs to the massive old ballroom, now full of dancing couples. The girls are young and fresh-faced, probably from Holliday College, and when Wonder Woman tells them to get their man, they do. The holds and locks they're using look kind of like judo and kind of like miscellaneous dirty tricks. He hardly has time to worry about them before they have their dance partners all wrapped up for the Army.


	18. Antidote

__

Diana is very proud of her girls. This way there are no casualties, but even if she hadn't spent most of the night sabotaging weapons, it would have been a decisive victory. She's still not used to the way women just aren't taken seriously in Man's World. These girls may not have Amazon strength and only a dash of Amazon training, but they're perfectly capable of being dangerous. There are a few shots from personal sidearms she hadn't been able to get her hands on, but they all go wide, the girls on watch for that particular danger. 

She can feel Steve relaxing a little in her arms when he realizes that the situation is almost entirely under control and that none of the girls have been hurt. He leans over her shoulder to clout the last struggling German in the head when he proves troublesome for his dance partner, and then reaches into the man's coat to pull out one of those personal sidearms Diana couldn't sabotage.

"Listen," he says, checking to be sure the gun is loaded, "this is solid work, but we've gotta find Poison. He's our best shot at an antidote."

Diana nods, and once Etta signals to her that they have everyone down, she races to the lab with Steve in her arms. It really does feel like he belongs there, and she makes the most of this opportunity to hug him, so fragile and so brave about how every step she takes jars his leg.

"You'd have told me if Nurse Prince wasn't all right, right?" Steve asks as she runs down the stairs to the lab rather than just jumping them, in deference to Steve's leg. "They were looking for her all night."

"Nurse Prince is safe," Diana tells him, touched by the little sigh of relief he lets out. "She has been very worried about you, though," she adds

"She's a good kid," Steve says, and then there's no time for more because they've reached Poison's laboratory at last. The doctor is in, flinging things into a large black bag in obvious preparation to flee. Diana sets Steve gently down in a chair, and pounces on and pulls off the mask and the long green coat, confirming her initial suspicions.

"I knew you were a woman! Your delicate hands betrayed you." 

Poison's hands are delicate, and she's really quite pretty, with sleek dark hair and flawless, golden skin. She's wearing a straight-skirted violet gown that becomes her far better than her disguise ever did. She pulls a gun from seemingly nowhere, and she hears the pistol in Steve's hand cock, even as she brings her bracelets up.

"I wasn't raised to shoot women," Steve growls, "but I can learn."

With Poison outflanked, it's easy for Diana to snatch the gun from her hand and quickly get her into a hold where struggling will only break her own arm. Steve keeps his gun trained on her as Diana demands the antidote to Reverso. She declares herself to be the Lady Maru and unafraid of death. Steve talks Diana through checking her for a suicide capsule in her back teeth, but there's nothing. Killing her will be useless without the formula, but after a moment, Diana smiles.

"Steve," she says, "we have an easy fix for this."

He catches her meaning, and grins back.

Diana marches Maru into one of the intact cells and locks her in, advising Etta of the situation as she carries Steve upstairs and outside to one of the various jalopies the Holliday girls arrived in. She's still quite new to driving this kind of thing, but she manages to make it take them back to the hospital, while Steve rants about time being of the essence.

"They can debrief you just as easily in bed as anywhere else," Diana snaps, tired of Steve's noble dedication to duty when the pain in his leg is turning his face an odd shade of grey.

"I guess so, but if Maru gets away because we were busy coddling me--"

"Making sure you don't get a marrow embolism isn't coddling!" For a moment she sounds so much like her Nurse Prince persona that she's afraid she has given the game away, but Steve just gives her an odd look for a moment before sighing and admitting that she's right. She reaches over and ruffles his hair. "I know it's hard for a warrior to be laid up, Steve, but we've got to be reasonable."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're wondering why Diana isn't italicized anymore, it's because first I forgot and then Ao3 refused to acknowledge the necessary html. As it often does, and then wonders why people so frequently kick it and complain.


End file.
